Good to last trot

The clock was supposed to stop at 1959, the last time the White Sox were in the World Series.

Instead, the White Sox almost dialed all the way back to the "Hitless Wonders" days of 1906.

Stymied with only three hits and an unearned run for the first eight innings, the Sox came back to the present in the ninth inning, scoring four runs for a 5-3 victory over the beat-up Dodgers in front of 36,067 fans.

The victory not only put the Sox a season-high 23 games over .500 but sent them a season-high 61/2 games in front of the Minnesota Twins in the AL Central.

And to think they were so close to returning to their old losing days.

But it was A.J. Pierzynski's two-run, two-out, two-strike second-chance homer that gave this modern version of the Sox their 20th come-from-behind victory of the season and 10th in their last at-bat.

"This team doesn't quit," Pierzynski said. "We were down to our last strike a couple of times."

Aaron Rowand tied the game with a single on a 3-2 pitch before Pierzynski hit his game-winning homer on a 3-2 pitch.

"There wasn't too much pressure on me," Pierzynski said. "The pressure was on Aaron."

The pressure was on the entire lineup after a failed eight innings in their 1959 pinstriped baggies. They finally switched gears in the ninth inning against Yhency Brazoban, thrown back into the role of Dodgers closer with Eric Gagne on the disabled list.

The rally started with Tadahito Iguchi drawing a walk and advancing to second on Frank Thomas' groundout. After Paul Konerko flied out, Carl Everett lined an RBI single to right. Pinch-runner Willie Harris stole second, which allowed him to score the tying run on Rowand's single up the middle.

Then Pierzynski followed with his homer, "my first walk-off anything," he said. Just the pitch before, the catcher threw his bat in disgust, believing he had made the third out, but his foul pop fell into the Dodgers dugout.

The ninth-inning rally made a winner of Cliff Politte (4-0), who pitched one inning in relief of Freddy Garcia, who had his usual home-field blues. He has won at The Cell only once all season, compared with five times on the road.

Garcia struggled early with two runs but retired 11 of 12 batters before giving up a third run through eight innings.

The Sox's highest-paid pitcher at $9 million per season, Garcia threw a season-high 120 pitches, walked a career-high-tying six batters and threw three wild pitches. In short, his night could have been much worse.

Garcia walked more batters in Saturday's first inning (four) than he had in any of his starts this season and as many as in his last four starts combined.

By the time the third inning was over, Garcia had allowed six walks and four hits and thrown two wild pitches while throwing 81 pitches. But he was behind only 2-1.

"He was real lousy the first two innings," Guillen said. "After that he was throwing the best I've seen in a while."

"The first inning, I don't know what was going on," Garcia said. "Maybe I was a little lazy. I threw the ball all over the place. In the third I started finding myself and threw strikes. The point is we won."

"He got a little angry [after the second inning]," Pierzynski said. "When he gets angry, he gets good. Maybe we should go punch him before the first pitch."

Garcia made it through eight innings but gave up one final run before leaving. Jeff Kent, who homered for a pair of runs in the first, led off the eighth with a double, went to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch.

And then came the wild ninth inning, as the Sox beat the clock again for a last-minute victory.